The Pack's Hacker (by Cooper) novel Chapter 411

Wendy

Unlike Hacker, or anyone in my life really, Hijack stood behind me and watched, but he didn’t tell me if I was right or wrong in my assessments of the heat sources I found. Small animals were easy. Mid-size and large animals weren’t so easy. Stellan could be hiding in human or wolf form. He could be curled into a tight ball or stretched out lying flat on the ground. I tried to determine the differences between the heat sources while Hijack went outside to speak with Raptor before they took off.

When he comes back in he pulls his chair in between our workstations, turning a monitor so he can watch it and watch mine at the same time.

“Okay, Raptor and Siren are going south, Venom, Intrigue, and Cipher are going north. Choose your team,” he says. “Venom, Intrigue, and Cipher,” I say instantly. I’m pretty sure they will be more accepting of my errors than Raptor.

He glances at his monitor, making sure that Raptor and Siren are good to go before letting them know there’s no threat before turning back to my monitor.

“What about that large heat source?” I ask, pointing to one that’s close to edge of the river where they’re headed.

“Beaver family,” he says dismissively.

“UGH! How do you know that?”

He grins. “I saw the dam when I went outside to talk to Raptor.”

I roll my eyes and turn back to my monitor.

“Sphinx? Are we good to go?” Intrigue asks.

“There’s a heat source about a half a mile up on the left, opposite of the river. I’ll walk you to it,” I say.

“Okay, let’s move out,” Venom says.

As they get closer, the heat source begins running away.

“It’s on the move! The heat source is on the move,” I say.

“Deer. It’s a deer, Sphinx,” Venom says.

Damn. “Okay. There’s not another heat source for about three-quarters of a mile.”

“Heat source ahead of you, Raptor. Right-hand side, large. Use caution,” I hear Hijack say behind me. I glance at his monitor and see that it’s a large heat source, larger than anything I have on mine. It also wasn’t there when I did my first pass thirty minutes ago.

“What do you think it is, Hijack?” Raptor asks.

“I’d say it’s a bear,” he says.

I glance at his monitor again, wondering how he knows that.

“Watch your own monitor, Sphinx. These people are counting on you to keep them safe,” he says.

I tuck my question about how he knew it was a bear away for later. Maybe he’s wrong.

“Fucking bear,” Raptor growls few minutes later.

Of course Hijack isn’t wrong.

“Show off,” I grumble.

“It’s not showing off when you’re keeping others safe, Sphinx. And this isn’t a competition. I have way more experience than you, not just at the Academy, but also in the field. Focus.”

I focus on my team while Hijack helps Raptor and Siren navigate around the bear.

“Any idea who’s having sex across the river? She’s fucking loud,” Venom says.

“You’d think the water would mute the sound, but I swear it’s amplifying it,” Intrigue says.

Hijack clicks into my comm. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

I turn and look at him. “You know who that is?”

He raises an eyebrow.

“Who?”

He points to my monitor, and I focus on my team coming on up the next heat source.

I hear the yipping and then one of the team members snarling at the creature.

“A den of coyotes,” Cipher says. “Maybe look at heat sources that aren’t quite so spread out, Sphinx. That was a mother and her pups.”

I know Zach is trying to help, but I just feel like I’ve failed them.

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